Karzai suffers depression, says Watergate investigator

Afghan President Hamid Karzai takes medication for manic depression, according
to a new book by the investigative journalist Bob Woodward.

By Ben Farmer in Kabul

9:44AM BST 22 Sep 2010

The book also claims the American government was beset by in-fighting last autumn as President Obama and security aides warred over how many reinforcements to send to Afghanistan as part of his surge strategy.

The president rejected his military commanders’ favoured plan to send 40,000 troops, fearing the campaign was escalating into an endless conflict, according to Obama’s War.

He finally only compromised by sending 30,000 troops after dictating a six-page list of limitations to rein in his generals and their expanding campaign.

The book by Bob Woodward, the investigative reporter who uncovered the Watergate scandal, contains detailed accounts of strategy sessions and conversations between Mr Obama and his advisers.

It cites claim from American intelligence reports that Mr Karzai was diagnosed as manic depressive.

“He’s on his meds, he’s off his meds,” Karl Eikenberry, US ambassador to Kabul, is quoted as saying in the book, according to the Washington Post.

Mr Karzai’s mercurial moods have often exasperated his international backers.

Gen Eikenberry expressed deep concern about Mr Karzai’s erratic behaviour last year according to leaked diplomatic cables and memos.

The Afghan president then triggered a diplomatic crisis and jeopardised a state visit to Washington when he appeared to advocate joining the Taliban.

Mr Karzai’s palace and the US embassy in Kabul had no immediate comment on the allegations.

The book depicts Mr Obama’s administration as split by bitter personal disagreement as he spent weeks debating his Afghan policy.

It also casts light on Mr Obama’s criticised decision to announce American troops would start to withdraw from Afghanistan in July 2011.

US General James Conway, head of the US Marine Corps, said last month the deadline was “giving our enemy sustenance.”

According to the book, Mr Obama told aides: “This needs to be a plan about how we’re going to hand it off and get out of Afghanistan.” He told his defence secretary, Robert Gates, “I’m not doing 10 years. I’m not doing long-term nation-building. I am not spending a trillion dollars.”

The book also discloses that the CIA keeps a secret paramilitary army of 3,000 local Afghans that conduct operations against Taliban safe havens in Pakistan.